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Updated: Feb 8, 2026

Natural Product Discovery with LC-MS/MS Diagnostic Fragmentation Filtering: Application for Microcystin Analysis
Published on: May 31, 2019
Recent examples of α-ketoglutarate-dependent mononuclear non-haem iron enzymes in natural product biosyntheses
Shu-Shan Gao1, Nathchar Naowarojna2, Ronghai Cheng2
1State Key Laboratory of Microbial Resources, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
Abstract:
Covering: up to 2018 α-Ketoglutarate (αKG, also known as 2-oxoglutarate)-dependent mononuclear non-haem iron (αKG-NHFe) enzymes catalyze a wide range of biochemical reactions, including hydroxylation, ring fragmentation, C-C bond cleavage, epimerization, desaturation, endoperoxidation and heterocycle formation. These enzymes utilize iron(ii) as the metallo-cofactor and αKG as the co-substrate. Herein, we summarize several novel αKG-NHFe enzymes involved in natural product biosyntheses discovered in recent years, including halogenation reactions, amino acid modifications and tailoring reactions in the biosynthesis of terpenes, lipids, fatty acids and phosphonates. We also conducted a survey of the currently available structures of αKG-NHFe enzymes, in which αKG binds to the metallo-centre bidentately through either a proximal- or distal-type binding mode. Future structure-function and structure-reactivity relationship investigations will provide crucial information regarding how activities in this large class of enzymes have been fine-tuned in nature.
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